“I love teasing you, Nathan. You get so wound up so quickly. It’s fun to watch.”
“Was Marcus like that? Quick to get angry?”
“I didn’t see him for more than a few minutes. He seemed quite calm to me. Mercury was rather more full of fury at the time.”
“And the favor was?”
“Can’t I drag it out a bit more . . . make you wait a little longer?”
“I’m sure you can.”
She giggles again. “The favor he asked of Mercury was that she should bring up his son. You. She refused. She doesn’t like little boys much.”
“Except in stew.”
Rose giggles again.
Mercury had said my father cares only for himself. She lies about everything. But Marcus must know that too, so . . .
“Why did he ask Mercury for her help?”
“I think she considers she made the wrong decision now. She would like to have a hold over Marcus. But at the time she was too angry about Mercy.”
“But why did he ask her?”
“He thought Mercury should help. You are related, after all.”
“Mercury is my relative?”
“Her twin sister, Mercy, was the mother of Saba.”
What?
“Marcus killed his own grandmother?”
“Not that unusual. But not something that Mercury is ever going to forgive. She loved Mercy. There can be no getting over that. Mercury might not die for the person she loved but she’ll kill for her. It makes me laugh. Black Witches are always killing their relatives, wives, lovers. Shites should just leave them to it and there’d soon be no Blacks left.”
I look up to the sky again. No eagle. Mercury is my great-great aunt . . . And my father has been watching me, watching out for me all my life.
Trusting Gabriel
I go back to the cottage and wait on the grass for Gabriel.
I’m excited about my father, pleased—elated even.
I want to tell Gabriel. But late afternoon turns into evening and then night. I forget my joy and think about Hunters. Geneva is crawling with them and Gabriel is too casual. He could easily make a mistake or be betrayed by the person he is supposed to be meeting or by one of the Half Bloods he keeps warning me about.
It’s nearly midday the following day when Gabriel appears on the cottage roof. He doesn’t smile; he looks like he hasn’t slept.
I tell him he looks terrible.
Now he smiles. “So do you.”
I leap up on to the roof and sit by him.
He says, “There’s a perfect English word for how I feel.” He flops back. “Knackered.”
“You didn’t try bumping into more Hunters?”
“No, but it got complicated. We had to make a detour . . . a serious detour. I wanted to spend the night with Pilot—she lives farther out of Geneva—but she took one look at the girl who was with me and said no. The girl’s a White Witch, as pure as they come, says she’s fleeing from the Council. But I don’t know what to believe. The girl was freaking out as well, which didn’t help. Basically it was a mess.”
“So where is the girl now?”
“In the apartment. Though I wasn’t sure about taking her there. I don’t trust her at all.” Gabriel shakes his head. “She won’t talk to me, says she will only speak to Mercury and, as you know, I can’t help her until she tells me more. She won’t. I won’t. We went round in circles for a long time. Physically and verbally.”
“It all sounds rather convenient that someone is fleeing from the Council and needs Mercury’s help when they are searching for me. Do you think she’s been sent by the Council or the Hunters?”
“I don’t know. I can’t work her out. She’s exhausted me. I need to forget her for a while and relax. I have some news from Pilot for Mercury. Then we can go for a swim.”
We wait for Mercury on the roof. I tell him what Rose told me about Marcus killing Mercy and then I tell him about the eagle. And that is when Mercury appears. She must have been listening to everything.
Mercury wants to know more about the eagle. Like me, I think she wonders if it’s Marcus.
I don’t answer but instead ask her, “Do you think Marcus watches me?”
I expect her to laugh. I feel ridiculous as soon as I say it.
She says, “He cares only for himself, Nathan. If he watches you it is for his own ends.”
And I can see that if Marcus thinks I’m going to kill him he would want to keep an eye on me. But I’m his son, his only son. And if I had a son I would watch him, and I would want to meet him too. I would want to see him in the flesh, to touch him as a child and hold him. But Marcus hasn’t ever come to see me, to hold me and—
“And you met the girl, Gabriel?”
“Yes. She’s at the apartment. I don’t trust her, but it’s the only place I could leave her. Pilot gave me another message for you. She told me that Clay was in Geneva. She said, ‘Clay has the Fairborn.’”
Mercury laughs her howl of a laugh, practically skips on to the roof, and grabs our hands. Roof tiles fly up and we seem to hover in the air on an upsurge of wind before she lowers us to the grass.
When we land Mercury strokes my cheek. “I’ve heard of a vision about the Fairborn and you, Nathan. And I think you have heard it too.” She pinches my chin and looks into my eyes. “Definitely.”
She strokes my cheek again before turning to Gabriel and saying, “It will be interesting to see how Nathan changes with that knife in his hand.”
Gabriel looks confused.
“Nathan can explain to you about the vision. And tonight we will discuss how the Fairborn can be taken from Clay and put into my—no . . . Nathan’s hands.”
We lie on the mossy bank of the small lake. We have run there, swum, and now we are letting the sun’s rays dry and warm us. But my head’s in a different place.
Gabriel says, “This morning I went to the house where Pilot said Clay was staying to check it for myself. Pilot gets things wrong sometimes. But she wasn’t wrong. Clay is there.”
“How do you know it’s him?”
Gabriel shrugs. “They have that look, don’t they? Arrogance. He’s the most arrogant of them all. The king of arrogance.”
It’s him.
“He has a girlfriend,” Gabriel says.
“You serious?” I remember his truncheon and being on the ground, trying to protect my head with my arms.
“Even more surprising . . . she’s attractive. Tall and slim and young . . . young for Clay, you know what I mean. Some women go for looks, some go for money, some go for power. She obviously goes for”—he shrugs—“arrogant old men.”
Gabriel’s trying to make me laugh, but I can’t see anything funny about Clay.
I say, “He’s not that old. He’s powerful. Has a certain position in society. He’s cunning . . . intelligent.” And brutal.
“So, a good catch for a White Witch.”
I sit up and look at the lake, the deep blue surface reflecting the sky, lime green underneath from the weeds growing in the water. It reminds me of Ellen. I tell Gabriel. “I met a Half Blood in London. She had amazing eyes. A bit like the lake, that mix of blue and green, only hers had turquoise and . . .” I run out of things to say. Clay’s eyes were like ice.
Gabriel sits up too. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve met Clay. Twice.” I remember his breath on my neck.
I want to tell Gabriel about the Fairborn and my tattoos and Celia’s training and Mary’s warning. But I don’t know what the first word is . . . where to begin. . . . Where do I start with all this stuff?
He says, “Tell me about this Half Blood. She sounds interesting.”